Driving diversity of talent – The 2022 winners of the R&D Postdoctoral Challenge

Drug discovery never stands still, there’s always more to explore and more to understand. We embrace this concept across all aspects of our business, recognising the importance of pushing the science further, continuously innovating and optimising to remain at the cutting-edge of R&D.

An area we felt urgently needed to be addressed were the difficulties being faced by postdoctoral researchers across the globe. Uncertainty around long-term career prospects, lack of effective mentorship and significant financial pressures were having a detrimental impact on postdoctoral applications and scientific exploration. We wanted to be part of the global solution and designed a unique programme to promote R&D productivity, increase diversity of thought and stimulate research opportunities. The R&D Postdoctoral Challenge was launched in March 2022, encouraging autonomy by inviting candidates to propose their own research ideas that could contribute to tackling some of the world’s most complex diseases.

Roll on to June and more than 120 innovative research proposals had been received from the global research community. I was bowled over by the ideas proposed and inspired to see this level of passion and commitment from the future science stars of tomorrow. Alongside colleagues from AstraZeneca and notable external life science leaders we critiqued the proposals based on scientific merit and opportunity to create real impact for patients, society and across our disease areas. Six outstanding candidates were shortlisted as finalists and invited to present their hypotheses live during AstraZeneca’s Global Science Symposium in Gothenburg, Sweden. We were so impressed that we agreed to fund all six, offering all the finalists postdoctoral research positions with access to all that we offer – expertise, compounds, novel tools and technologies, and mentoring support. Congratulations to these extremely talented individuals who will join over 14,000 colleagues who work exclusively in R&D, immersing themselves into our vibrant postdoctoral community and contributing to medical innovation and future drug discovery. ?

The six winners come from different corners of the world, with varied professional backgrounds, experiences and cultures. For me, this is an important demonstration of our unwavering commitment to increasing diversity of talent and making AstraZeneca what it is today: inclusive, collaborative and at the forefront of scientific exploration. This has always been of utmost importance to our team and we remain firmly focused on providing an environment that promotes pioneering research whilst supporting early talent to progress their careers. A postdoctoral position at AstraZeneca is so much more than just the work, our winners now gain access to a world of learning opportunities, building the foundations of their professional networks that could last a lifetime.

A huge thank you to all those who submitted proposals for the R&D Postdoctoral Challenge. We look forward to re-running the programme in future years, inviting more stellar researchers to join our scientists and collaborators in generating high impact science that will support future advances in life-changing medicines.

If you’re interested to find out more about the programme, the winners’ experiences in Gothenburg and the judges’ thoughts on this year’s research proposals, then watch this highlights video: Winners of the R&D Postdoctoral Challenge 2022

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